Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1155029
4 UCW AUGUST 14-20, 2019 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/EDITOR Stephanie Crider editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Jenna Shackelford jenna@upandcomingweekly.com SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR Earl Vaughan Jr. EarlUCWSports@gmail.com REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Long art@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com INTERNS Avery Powers Deidre Somdah CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, Karl Merritt, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Prudence Mainor, Avery Powers, Elizabeth Blevins ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: 910-484-6200 FAX: 910-484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publica- tion with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/ Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publica- tion consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or mate- rial. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and out- door locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2019 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with ele- ments from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. Racism and hatred have no place in our country by REP. RICHARD HUDSON PUBLISHER'S PEN This week, Bill Bowman yields his space to Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., to share his thoughts on mass shoot- ings in America and what Congress is doing to pass meaningful legislation to deal with gun violence. "Mom, it's happening again." Those were the words of a 13-year-old girl in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 3. Then, it happened again. This time in Dayton, Ohio. And just four months ago, it happened here at UNC-Charlotte. It seems — yet again — that no commu- nity is immune to gun violence and the evils of a deranged person. Like you, I was sickened by the inno- cent lives lost and the horrific violence. As a father and a husband, I can't help but put myself in the shoes of the vic- tims and their families. Two more com- munities mourning. Countless families grappling with grief and burying loved ones. And one country — yet again — searching our souls for answers and wondering why this sort of sickness is overtaking our communities. I refuse to accept this as our new American reality. We must recom- mit ourselves to ending this kind of violence. All Americans are affected by these shootings, and we all want to do something. It should be harder for people who shouldn't have guns to have guns. Congress needs to work together to address this problem and not just "do something," but do some- thing in a bipartisan way that will actually make a difference. I have cosponsored legislation that has been signed into law that puts more resources in mental health, provides training for guidance coun- selors, funds grants for law enforce- ment, provides money to harden schools and strengthens background checks. I also introduced legislation that passed the House last Congress to strengthen background checks, ad- dress bump stocks and deal with the patchwork of concealed carry laws. In addition, the House recently passed a spending bill with my amendment to double the money avail- able for research to study the root causes of gun violence, including the impact and effective- ness of grants authorized under the STOP School Violence Act. I support legislation in the current Congress to strengthen background checks and to improve communication between state, local and federal law enforcement so potential shooters don't keep falling through the cracks. At the end of the day, it is not our government alone that is going to solve this problem. Rac- ism and hatred have no place in our country. It's up to all of us to get seri- ous about addressing the root causes of this violence: the breakdown of the family, culture, media, mental health and many more. As President Don- ald Trump said last week, one thing we must recognize is the internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds. I applaud the president for directing the Depart- ment of Justice to work in partnership with local and state agencies, as well as social media companies, to develop tools to detect mass shooters before they strike. It's time to tone down the rhetoric and work on bipartisan, com- mon sense solutions. HIGH 94 LOW 75 HIGH 96 LOW 78 HIGH 97 HIGH 95 HIGH 96 LOW 77 LOW 78 LOW 74 AUGUST 19 AUGUST 18 AUGUST 16 AUGUST 17 AUGUST 20 Scattered Thunderstorms Isolated Thunderstorms Partly Cloudy Isolated Thunderstorms Isolated Thunderstorms PM Thunderstorms AUGUST 15 HIGH 97 LOW 77 At the end of the day, it is not our government alone that is going to solve the gun violence problem. REP. RICHARD HUDSON, R-N.C. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200.